Running!

Yea!!!! My amazingly talented husband got the 4-wheeler back up and running. He's worked on it non-stop all week (when not at work) and finally got it going again this morning. The boys were so excited!!!!!
Way to go Daddy!!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to us! We celebrated 14 years of marriage yesterday. The day didn't go exactly as we had planned....

On Monday Stephen and the boys dug my OLD 4 wheeler out of my dad's barn, and brought it home, cleaned it up, and got it running again. This thing is like 24 years old! I never dreamed that the 4-wheeler I rode as a kid would some day be rode by my own kids! Wow! The kids and I had a lot of fun riding it that evening.

Tuesday (Happy Anniversary!) morning, Stephen went to get the boys donuts. I had told him when I was working on Monday, I was going in reverse and had my windows down because I was taking comp photos, and I heard my car making a weird squeaking noise...so he drove my car to the donut shop and listened to what I was talking about. Sure enough, he said my brake pads need replaced. So that was on his agenda for the day, to get it fixed for me. Well, after breakfast the first thing the boys wanted to do was ride the 4 wheeler again. I actually got some pictures and videos of them riding it. While they rode, and I watched them, and Stephen brush-hogged the pasture so they could ride easier. They were having a blast!

Seth and I had came inside, to get some water, and the next thing I know Stephen has the 4 wheeler parked and said he's going to have to tear into it because it was making a strange knocking sound and he didn't want to risk blowing a rod or something. So he spent hours working on it. During this time, I cleaned the pool and swam with Seth, and then played catch with Seth (Levi was busy trying to help his Dad work). Around 3pm he took a break and we went into town to get some parts he needed, and also brake pads for my car. We stopped for late lunch/early dinner at Shlotzkys (spell?) and then came home for him to get back to work. While he worked on the 4 wheeler some more, seth and I went grocery shopping. We got home and he was still working on it (poor guy!), so I unloaded the groceries and then decided to run. I ran 4 miles, then went out to check on him, because it was getting dark. He was out there working on my brakes then. (BTW: I have the most AMAZING husband! Thank You God!!! I'm so blessed that he can fix all of these things on my car, and keep me and the boys safe!) I came back in and worked on some of my appraisal school stuff. Then he came in to ask me to drive it up and down the drive to make sure it was all working good. Sure enough, he did a GREAT job! So I gave him a kiss and told him thank you for my Anniversary present (brake pads) LOL! then I told him I felt bad because I didn't get him anything... LOL!!! So we decided, next year, for our 15th Anniversary, we need to do something REALLY special. Needless to say the day didn't go exactly as we had planned or hoped, but God blessed us with another day together in this life, and we will be thankful for it.


Stephen said he has to work on the 4 wheeler again today after work, and both boys are praying really hard that Daddy will get it running again. I have faith that he will. I have an amazingly talented husband who can fix just about anything. We are very, very blessed! I hope he knows how much we love and appreciate him!

Levi driving the 4-wheeler, and Seth riding behind. We need to get them both a helmet, WHEN we get it running again.

Seth driving, with Levi behind. Amazingly, Seth is the more careful driver!

Catching up

It's been a whirlwind since my last post.

When Stephen took off of work for a week, we went camping. We went to a state park first, for Tuesday evening through Friday morning. It was so much fun to get away and just enjoy my family. The first day the boys fished and I went for a run, then we went for a long bike ride down to the park store. There we found out that we could all fish without a fishing license, as long as we are in the state parks. So we all went fishing and had a great time! They caught 15 the first day, but 2 of them got away when trying to get them on the stringer. Then the second day I think we caught 13 or 14 more! We actually caught enough crappie for a fish fry! It rained most of the day thursday and friday. So Friday morning we had left, to go up to where stephen's family lives and go camping there with them. They brought their camper and boat out and we went water skiing on saturday and tubeing on sunday. I actually got to ski with Stephen, and his rope was a little shorter than mine, so he kept getting over close to me and spraying me with water, the turkey! LOL! Then I also water skied with Levi. It was a blast. On Sunday afternoon Levi started running a fever. Luckily Stephens mother is an RN and had a thermometer. It was up in the 100's, and we gave him some medicine. She left her awesome forehead thermometer for us, and we couldn't figure out how to use it. We were following the directions, but it just wasn't working right. So Monday morning she came back out to the lake to see how Levi was, and see what was wrong with the thermometer. Well....it helps if you take the clear cover off! LOL!!!! Boy did we feel like idiots! LOL!!!!!

We had came back home to get back to work. Once the boys fever was gone on Wednesday, I was able to take them to my Mom and Dad's house. They stayed with them the rest of the week and went to VBS at their church. Stephen and I went over Saturday and stayed the night and went to their church on Sunday. It was great to hear my Daddy preach. We stayed for that evening also, because the church was having a home-made ice cream social for my dad's birthday. It was D-LISH! (I soooo cheated on my diet that day! LOL!)

Then this past week we took the kids to Hurricane Harbor (a six flags water park) on Monday. They loved it! We all had a lot of fun going down all of the waterslides.

On Thursday I went up to my Aunt Linda's to get my hair done. The boys had a blast! They swam in her pool and played with two puppies she found. (If anyone wants two puppies, she has a boy and a girl, they look just alike and are ADORABLE. Their names are Lady and Tramp. How cute is that! By the looks of their paws, they will become big dogs.)

Then Saturday was my 15 year class reunion. Stephen couldn't go with me, because he had a class all day Thursday-Sunday. But it was good to see everyone again. Only 10 students out of a class of 30-something showed up. But we had fun anyway. It was neat to hear what everyone is now doing, where they live, and how many kids they have, etc. Hard to believe it's been 15 years though. I'm getting old...

Excited!!!

My hubby just told me that he has a surprise. I was intrigued.... He said he took off ALL next week!!!!!! YIPPY!!!!!!!!!!! He will still have to do some work on Monday and Tuesday, as will I, but then I'm going to take off the rest of the week also! Hooray!!!!!! I'm so excited to get a few days with my guys. We are so in need of it.

While he's been working so much, we put the boys a tent up in the living room for a few days. Boy they LOVED that. It was their fort, spy headquarters, house, etc during the day. Then at night they would put their sleeping bags in it and sleep in the floor. They were thrilled.

Today, a crazy thing happened to me. I went to work, used my access key and went into the house I was measuring. I had to go through the house to get into the back yard to measure, because they had locks on the gates. I went to the back door, turned the dead-bolt and the door lock and went outside. I measured, and then when I was ready to go back in, the door knob wouldn't turn. I was locked out! Plus the gates were locked, and they had an 8ft wood fence, so I was locking in their back yard. I called the Realtor and told her what happened and that the key was laying inside by the front door (I always put the key there, so I'll remember to put it back in the box when I lock up to leave. and I always lock the front door behind me when I enter a house, to keep anyone else from following me inside.) She then called the homeowners, and called me back to tell me where the gate key was hidden (so I could at least get out of the back yard). Luckily the homeowner then called me and gave me the code to open their garage door, and that the door leading in from the garage is never locked. Praise God!!!! I was really getting worried there for a little bit, while waiting on the realtor to call me back. Talk about a sick feeling, knowing you had locked yourself out of someone else's house and their spare key was locked inside. Whew! Luckily God came through for me and saved the day. I was short on time, because I had to hurry up and get home before Stephen had to go to work. It all worked out perfectly, thank the Lord. Never a dull day.... LOL!

nothin' much...just working....

Things have been crazy lately. Stephen has been working for about two weeks straight, with only Sunday off (though he didn't get home until 6am and had to sleep half the day). When he is home, I'm working (so that I can get some work done without the kids), and when he's working, I'm at home. Since he has been working so much lately, I've had to take the kids to work with me a lot lately. They don't like it, but know that we have no other choice. So it's been a whirlwind around here....
We did take a few hours a little over a week ago, and took the boat to the lake. On the way there, we had a blow out on the trailer. We had to unhook, jack up the boat trailer, take off the shredded tire and haul it in to a tire shop and buy a new one. We did thankfully get to the lake, and got to spend a few hours out there, before we had to rush home, shower and get ready for a night out at some friends house for dinner. It was so nice to get out and visit with friends, and enjoy the evening with them.

Levi's got a tooth about to fall out, trying to talk him into pulling it. It's one of the top center teeth, and he's worried because the one next to it is loose also. He can't figure out how he's going to be able to eat if he loses them. LOL!

Six Flags Pictures

To read about our day, go to the post below.
Here are the pictures I took with my phone, when we were at six flags. I'll have to get Stephen's also....

Seth, ready to ride his very first roller coaster. Which he loved, and we had to ride again.



Teacups, always a favorite.

riding the cloud balloon ride. He loved it to. He was being a brave little boy!

Stephen, watching us ride the "crazy legs".

Seth, ready to ride the Mine Train! (again, he loved it! can't count how many times we rode it)

Daddy and Levi, riding the carousel.

Seth, after the carousel ride. Do you think he liked it?! LOL!

Levi and Dad on the "rodeo".

Relaxing with a nice "yosemite sam, gold river" ride (aka: indoor log ride=cooler temps LOL)

Yosemite Sam is also Seth's favorite ride. The one ride he begged for all day (and of course we had to do it twice).

Me in the Texas size chair. Everything is bigger in Texas! LOL!


Stephen and Seth in line for one of our MANY Runaway Mine Train rides. LOL!

Who is that?! LOL! He was decked out and ready for the Glow in the Park Parade.

Seth and Aunt Michelle, also decked out and ready for the parade. Cute! :-)

The boys loved the parade, and seeing all of the characters. Seth was mighty disappointed that they didn't have Superman in the parade though. they had Batman, so why not Superman?! He was about to cry, so I told him we'd just have to send them an e-mail. LOL!

Six Flags Trip

Stephen's parents and his sister came down on Sunday evening. They stayed the night with us and then we all got up early on Monday and went to Six Flags. Talk about fun times!!!! We always come away with such fun memories. These are things the boys are never going to forget....us either for that matter.
We got there early, got sunscreen on, and got inside the park with time to spare. We got to see the dance off competition with Mr Six (talk about funny!), and then finally the park was opened up. We went over to the Wile-e-coyote roller coaster first, for the boys to ride, but there wasn't anyone there working it yet. So we went on over to the Judge Roy Scream. This is all Levi's been able to talk about since last year, when he rode it three times in a row. Well, we got him on it, and then he was DONE. He wanted nothing to do with it the rest of the day. He said it was way to scary, and he didn't remember it being that fast. Guess we should have warmed him up with some other rides first. Oops. So then we went back to the Wile-e-coyote and Seth got to ride his first roller coaster! He was thrilled. After riding it once, he loved it, and we had to do it again. Then they did the teacups, and the swings, and then we went over and Seth did a cloud balloon ride thingy with me (twice). I was surprised because it went a little high, but he loved it.
We then went over to the Crazy Legs (like a side winder) and Papa and Granny rode it, but we couldn't get either of the boys on it. Then Papa, Aunt Michelle, and I rode it. It was fun! The boys still wanted nothing to do with it though.
We were then on our way to do something else, and Stephen found $5 on the ground! Yea!!! I swiped it from him and stuck it in my pocket (since he had all of our other cash). LOL! Then Granny's scooter that we rented started acting weird and not wanting to go. Papa and Levi ran back to the front, and had someone bring her a new one. Her knee is hurt, and if she walks to much it swells up big time. This way she was able to keep up with us (and her grandsons), without hurting herself.
While they were doing that, Stephen told me I could take Seth over to see if he'd do the big swings with me. Of course after watching it once, he said it went to high and wouldn't do it. But the mini mine train was right next to it, so he said he wanted to do that. he loved it! Then he wanted to do the runaway, which again, he loved. When we got off of that, Stephen, Levi, Aunt Michelle, and Papa were all on the Mini mine train. Then they went over and rode the runaway, and of course Levi loved it too. (we couldn't even get them anywhere near these two rides last year. The year before we had taken them on them, and they got scared to death and swore they wouldn't do that again.. LOL!)
We rode a ton of rides after this. Like the Roaring Rapids (seth calls the roaring rabbits! LOL!), and the Antique cars, the Boots, some games, etc. Then we realized it was 3pm and we hadn't even had lunch yet. So we walked out to the park and had a picnic.
We went back in and rode the carousel, we all rode the log ride, then Stephen and Levi rode the "rodeo" (twice), Seth and I were going to ride, but he wasn't tall enough yet. maybe next year. He was really close, and was very disappointed.
We watched a cowboy show, all rode the yosemite sam log ride thingy (twice), rode the indoor roller coaster (which is in total darkness and air conditioned..Love it!), then everyone but me and Levi (he didn't want to ride it) road the Aquaman (aka Splash Water Falls).
After that, I told Stephen I'd really like to ride that Tony Hawks Big Spin. It's something fairly new, and I've never had the chance to ride it before. So the boys stayed with his Mom and Sister, and Papaw went to ride it with us (he doesn't normally like Roller Coasters, so this was a big step for him! I was proud of him!) When it started going up, Stephen and I were facing down. It kinda took me off guard at first. It didn't look real steep from below, but when you are the one going up backwards it sure feels steep! LOL! But wow, talk about FUN!!!! I loved it!!!!! We all had a lot of fun on it.
Then we took the boys around to ride the mine trains again. I can't even count the number of times we rode these things over and over. Basically we'd get off, run around to jump back in line, and would get on the very next round. It was funny. I think papaw said on the last round of the Runaway mine train, we did it 6 times in a row. LOL! I'd lost count between the two.
Then we went and got some dinner, got the boys some "glow" things, and got them each a souvenir from the Justice League gift shop. Seth got a SuperMan necklace, and Levi got a huge magic type hat with super hero signals all over it. We then went to sit, for the Glow in the Park Parade. It was fun to watch the boys, in awe at seeing the looney tunes characters and all of the glow in the dark stuff. We stayed from open to close, and all had a fun filled day!
Seth was worn out, and I carried him out to the car. He didn't make it far, before he was snoring. I think we got home and crawled in bed after 1am. It sure was fun though.
Thank you again for going with us Papaw, Granny, and Aunt Michelle! I hope you had as much fun as we did. :-)

Kindergarten Graduation

My baby boy graduated Kindergarten last week. My, where does the time go?!

Here he is singing one of their songs.

Getting his diploma...

the school principal is telling them all that they are now 1st graders. {sniff, sniff}

After the ceremony, they got snacks. He was thrilled! LOL!


We had to go visit his teacher after the snacks, to pick up his report card (and his good bag).

Think he was excited?! LOL!!!

After the graduation we all came back to the house and I made Chicken Spaghetti for lunch. We all had a wonderful day, relaxing and visiting.

The next day, the boys went to the farm with Nana and Papa (they brought them back on their way home saturday), I worked, and Stephen drug the camper out to the lake. We camped from Friday-Wednesday. It was nice to get away for a few days....

where am I?

This past week has been a whirlwind.
*I got accepted into college (which I'll be doing online, as a Distance Learning student. I have to take 3 classes, so I can meet the necessary requirements to get my Appraiser "Certification"). Plus I have to do an additional 175 hours of Appraisal courses....

*We went camping over the weekend, which was sooooo much fun. A friend of Stephen's went also, and got the camp site next to us and our kiddos are around the same ages and played together the whole time. On Saturday Stephen's parents and sister came down to watch two of Levi's baseball games, then went back to camp with us and we all had a huge water fight. It was nice to let loose and play like a kid again. LOL! On Sunday Stephen had a basketball game. He's on an "over 30" team with a bunch of guys he works with. They played great! They won because the other team didn't have enough players show up, so they technically forfeited. But they went ahead and let some high school kids play with them, just to be able to play.

*Monday Stephen took my car to get new tires put on it. I had worn them out, in half of their "estimated life", so we got a good refund and some really nice new tires. After Stephen's basketball practice. he was on the way to meet me, so we could all go to Levi's baseball game, and the car started running bad and acting up. So we met and took the truck instead. He barely got it home. The next day he changed the fuel pump, thinking that would fix it. But it didn't. So he took it to a friend of his who is a mechanic. They did some tests and figured out it was a sensor that was bad. It's a factory part though, and was going to cost around $600. Yikes! And the bad news was it would take a few days to even get the part in. So I was going to be without a car, and have a ton of work to do. In a panic I called my Mom. Luckily they have an extra car, that my dad drives, when he doesn't need to drive his truck (to save on gas). My dad had been up on the farm bailing hay, so Mom drove the extra car (almost a 2 hr drive) over here, and Dad was on his way home in the truck, so he met her here and picked her up (luckily our house is on his way home). We ordered some pizza and all had dinner together, before they had to make the trip back home. They truly saved me this week. I don't know what we would have done if they hadn't had a car for us to borrow until mine gets fixed. I love their little camry (oops! I forgot, it's actually an Avalon!) . It drives so smooth, and is so comfortable. I forgot how much I had loved my old camry, until I drove this car. Of course I probably think it drives so well, because mine has needed new tires for awhile, it was very rough because mine were worn smooth out. Then of course with the sensor going out, that was probably why it seems like her car is so much more sensitive and drives/stops so much easier. Hopefully mine will get fixed soon though, and will drive much better than it was before this all started. Yall say a prayer for us! :-)
Thanks again Mom and Dad! I love you both!!!!

*Next week is the boys last week of school. Seth will graduate from Kindergarten on Thursday morning at 9AM. I can't believe this. My BABY is graduating from Kindergarten! Where has the time gone?! He's growing up way to fast. Next year he will be in 1st grade, and his brother will be in 3rd. Wow....

New Oakley Sunglasses

My mothers day present came in!!!!!

I love these sunglasses. They fit perfectly, and are so lightweight that you don't even feel like you are wearing glasses. They are perfect!!!!

side view...

He even bought me this hard case to store them in, so they wont get scratched up in my purse! Perfect!!!! :-)

Mother's Day

I had the most amazing Mother's Day weekend. It started off when I picked the boys up from school on Friday. They each had a sweet gift for me. Levi's was a potted flower inside a basket he'd made/colored for me,

along with a card which read "roses are red, violets are blue, huny is sweet, and so are you" LOL (I love how he spelled "honey").

Then Seth gave me his gift. A colored tea cup with a tea bag inside. Very Cute!

Then he gave me a cloth with a ribbon tied around it and a poem attached.

After reading the poem, I was crying and could barely see the road as I was driving home. The boys knew I loved their gifts since I was crying so they are hooping/hollering for joy and giving each other high-five in the back seat. LOL!

The next morning, Saturday, we started off with a 10K (if you know me well, you know this is MY KIND of FUN!) Read all about it by clicking HERE

After the race I had to go do a quick final inspection for work, and then we went shopping. Stephen bought me a new tank top that I found on clearance, and a fabulous new pair of running shoes (since mine are worn out! LOL!) and I figured this was my Mother's Day present so I was thrilled! Of course they are blue, instead of pink like the pair I have now (pretty much everything that is "mine" is pink, because I'm surrounded by boys! lol!) These blue shoes just fit/felt better than the only pink pair they had in this brand. So I went ahead and gave in for comfort over color. LOL!

At this point I was thrilled! What an amazing weekend. But as we were walking out the door of the store to go eat some lunch, Stephen said "you're main gift isn't in yet. I ordered it, but it may not be in until Monday or Tuesday, but I ordered you a pair of Oakley's". WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I was jumping up and down in the store, yelling 'Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!" and kissing him on the cheek! A store worker saw me and she started smiling and giggling. LOL! I was THRILLED!!!!!!!! (He just sent me a text today, and told me they came in, so hopefully he will be bringing them home for me tonight!) I had secretly ordered him a pair last year for his birthday (a friend of his can order them for us at a discount) and we surprised him, I never dreamed that he would do the same for me. I've never owned a "Nice" pair of sunglasses, that actually fit well. I can't wait to get them!!!!!

Sunday Stephen and the boys let me sleep in. Needless to say, I overslept and would have never been able to get ready for church on time, so we took the day off. While they were letting me sleep, they started cooking me breakfast. Levi pretty much made the whole breakfast by himself. He cooked me turkey bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast...and even brought me a cup of coffee once I got up! I was being thoroughly spoiled! When I got up and walked into the kitchen, there sat a card and a gift bag. My sweet hubby and sons all wrote loving words in the card, and Seth was even old enough to write something and sign his name this year. It brought tears to my eyes. They had a sack of goodies for me also. It was so yummy body lotion, a perfect pale-pink lip gloss, and a jar of wipes for my car that was the same shape/size as a coke can (they know how I love wipes! I use one after every house I measure...my hands get very dirty..plus you never know what kind of germs you may be touching...).

After breakfast they played with Lego's while I finished up some reports I needed to get done and turned in. Then we went out to a late lunch/early dinner and also went grocery shopping. After putting the groceries away, I helped Levi bake some cupcakes. Then we all snuggled up on the couch and watched Beethoven. It's the first time the boys had ever seen this old movie. They laughed so hard! All in all, it was a wonderful, fun-filled, stress-free, Mother's Day weekend.

Thank you Stephen, and thank you boys. You all made Mother's Day a very special and fun filled weekend. I love you!!!!

2nd Half-Marathon

Visit my fitness blog to see my official Half-Marathon stats, and also read about the race day. :-)

http://www.choosefitness.blogspot.com/

Weekend Fun!

Friday night Stephen's Dad called me and said they were thinking of coming to visit us on Saturday. We were all thrilled to have them visit! Levi's baseball game was rained out, so we had the whole day to just relax, and enjoy spending time with our family. It was a wonderful day!!!!
Thank you Granny and Papaw!!! It was wonderful to see you, and spend the day together. We love ya'll!!!!!

Easter Weekend

The boys were out of school on Good Friday, so I took them over to my parents house for the weekend (Daddy had to work).
The pictures are sort of jumbled, and I don't feel like trying to sort them, so they are not in order, but at least you get to see them. :-) {you're so lucky! lol!}

Here is Coco. She had to get dolled up for Easter too! See her little bows?!



After an afternoon of Easter Shopping, this is me and Seth in the back seat of Nana's car. Having fun, and being silly.

Easter morning, ready for church.


My handsome boys, ready for church. Aren't they handsome!



Levi, lookin' handsome!


This was on Saturday. We took the boys to the courthouse for the Easter Egg Hunt. They had so much fun! Next year will be Levi's last year to get to do this one. It only goes through age 8. :-(

Here's Levi, showing off his new Bionicle that Nana bought him. Seth got one also. Nana made their day! LOL!

On Easter Sunday, Daddy's church always does a big pot-luck luncheon after service. This year they auctioned off the desserts, to raise money to send some little girls to kids camp. After the desserts were bought, they were of course shared with everyone. But it was a fun way to help raise money. Here is the cake Levi bought! He was thrilled!

Here is the boys Easter egg hunting at church, after lunch. You can see Levi running in the background, and Seth squatted down picking up an egg. they had a lot of fun!

Here is a picture of me and my Mommy, Easter morning.

Me and my handsome boys!

Another picture of me and my mommy (Seth took this one). Papa's not in these, because he had to leave for church really early.

It was a wonderful Easter weekend. We all had a lot of fun. The boys are already begging to go back to Nana and Papa's.

Thank you again for everything Mom and Dad! We love you!!!!!

Spring Break Camping

We went camping last week, for Spring Break. We had SO much fun!!!!
The hiking trails were amazing, and the boys loved climbing on/through the rocks. It was beautiful!

Mommy and Seth, at the Rumbling Springs.


Levi, doing his favorite thing, climbing!


Seth climbing.


The boys coming back down a big hill they climbed up.

Daddy and Toby waiting at the bottom of the big hill.

Hi!

Peek a Boo!

Three monkeys in a tree!

Daddy and the climbers.

Of course someone has to help them down. They can climb up, but can't get down.

In front of the old Fort Hospital, it was windy and cold that morning, but for the most part we had beautiful weather!

We didn't want to leave, so we decided to stay one extra day. It was bliss. Just being able to get away, and relax/play together was heavenly. Can't wait for the next trip~